The early church (and Jewish chronology) were very conscious of Daniel's 69 sevens prophecy that after 70 years of exile in Babylon, which had begun during the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar Jeremiah 25:1-11, Daniel 1:1 the Jews were permitted to return to Jerusalem. There then followed "7 sevens" - of rebuilding the city and the walls - followed by "62 sevens" and then the Messiah would be cut off. Therefore, 70 years + 69 times 7 years meant there must have been 553 years prior to March 31 AD - click here when the crucifixion occurred. Thus the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign involved coming to Jerusalem in 524 BC then taking Daniel and the others away perhaps around March 523 BC.Although the year is mentioned, the day and month is not. The destruction of the city occurred in his 19th year, in the month of July/August 506 BC rather than Ptolemy's account of 586 BC.

This introduced an 80 year discrepancy back to the foundation of the temple, which Ussher recorded as occurring in 1012 BC (rather than 932 BC). However, his figure of 479 (not 480) years outside Egypt also fails to account for the 93 "enslaved" / uncounted years during the period of the Judges, as seen in Paul's account of 70*7 years Joshua to David - click here. This introduced a discrepancy of 94 years in the opposite direction, and a nett discrepancy of 14 years - the Exodus was recorded by him as occurring in 1491 BC (rather than 1505 BC) and Adam created in 4004 BC (rather than 4018 BC).

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